Finally ready to co-write his latest movie from headlines in Southern California, where he has lived since 2001, Jeremy Danial Boreing made a call to writing partner John Bickley, a Floridian.

“John used to live in LA, and now he flies back and forth, or I fly back and forth,” said Boreing. “It’s just a system that works for us.”

In brief, said Boreing, “I also had seen a documentary movie about independent ranch owners whose land was being used to move drugs and illegal Mexicans. There is a desperate kind of lawlessness within the cartels. The price of getting into the United States might be carrying a backpack of heroin, but there also were a lot of rapes, a lot of murders, too.

“I told John this story should be told in narrative, and we had a script we needed to pound out.”

Boreing already had his title: “The Arroyo.”

And while writing the film, it hit him that he wanted West Texas to stand in for other locations, such as Arizona. The more he and Bickley began fine-tuning the film, the more “The Arroyo” became a West Texas movie, at least in terms of cast and production design.

The already-completed trailer promises a gripping, violent story with one rancher making a stand against professional criminals. For some, it may take a second viewing before they recognize that David Armendariz plays a cartel killer.

Boreing knew he was taking a huge chance on casting his lead. So he again flew to Lubbock for conversations with Kenny Maines to see if the actor, far better known for decades as a singer-songwriter, felt he could handle the role of James Weatherford in “The Arroyo.”

Co-producers for the film are Boreing and Jonathan Hay, both of whom had been advised to at least speak with Armendariz before making their final decision. The three were to meet at a Barnes & Noble Booksellers in the afternoon.

Boreing recalled, “As we walked into that coffee shop, I spotted a guy with a cup of gourmet coffee. He had his sleeves rolled up like he was a working cowboy. His cowboy hat was on the seat next to him, and he had his feet in a pair of stinking, dirty boots on the chair in front of him.

“But then I noticed he was reading the ‘Collected Works of Shakespeare,’ and I thought, ‘That has to be him.’”

They introduced themselves, and within seconds, Boreing said Armendariz told them, “I was told you need a villain for your movie. I’m your man. Just tell me what I’ve got to do to prove it to you.”

Boreing said, “He was like a tornado. He was saying things like, ‘I will walk out into the parking lot and beat down an old man. Will that prove it to you?’”

He got the role.

Leaving the bookstore some time later, Boreing recalled partner Hay asking, “Do you recall him threatening to beat up a stranger in front of us?”

“Hell yeah,” said Boreing, “but you know something? I think he meant it.”

The star of the movie is the rancher who gets caught up in a situation far bigger than anything he ever expected, a man named Jim Weatherford.

Kenny Maines has long been the popular and charismatic lead vocalist for a family group of music-makers called The Maines Brothers Band.

Terri Caldwell noted Maines also had fun combining comedy with his musical talents at the Cactus Theater in such (repeated) comedic productions as “Heavenly Country” and “Smoke on the Mountain.”

He also worked hard on “The Lonesome Highway,” aka “The Hank Williams Story.”

But Maines’ most impressive theatrical project to date has been his (again, much repeated) moving performance in playwright Andy Wilkinson’s “My Cowboy’s Gift.”

This play opens with a rancher returning from his wife’s funeral. He finds a cache of romantic poems in a cedar chest, some written by his wife and others by a cowboy with whom she may have been intimate.

Casting the movie’s lead became more challenging because Boreing felt in his gut he already had the right man in mind. “And yet Maines was not someone with movie experience.”

So they met.

“I just wasn’t sure,” said Boreing. “So I flew into Lubbock and sat down with him and said, ‘Kenny, I want you to play the lead in my movie. I can tell you it will be a grueling process, and physically taxing.

“‘I also know the role is far outside of your trusting zone. But if you will trust me, and let me help shape your performance, I think this can work.’”

Maines asked for time to think about it.

Boreing said, “Kenny called the very next day and said, ‘I want to be a part of this movie.’ And I said OK.”

Next up was a screen test for Maines, exchanging lines with Glenn Polk.

Boreing said this week, “Kenny’s performance became one of the wildest rides of my life. He devoted huge energy to this movie. In fact, the whole movie rides on him.

“This movie became almost biblical, getting past not only the dangerous physical stunts outdoors, but even dust devils and rattlesnakes. In the end, Kenny Maines made this movie happen. I enjoyed his work ethic. I’d have to say Maines proved he could be an honest-to-God movie star.”

Also impressive and recognizable: Scott Harris, with whom Boreing acted long ago in small West Texas theaters.

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Now we are defining discussion of a very real problem that takes innocent lives and affects every border state "crypto-fascist". It must have taken you a long time to think up something so disgusting to say.